Word: cop
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...handcuffed prisoner in full view of the police commander. He relishes the line "It's Giuliani time!" as he prepares for the film's final showdown--a reprise of a cruel reference to New York City's hard-line mayor that was famously and falsely attributed to the cop who tortured Abner Louima. If that isn't enough, contrast this Shaft's vulgar behavior toward a black woman in the film's only romantic sequence with the original Shaft's tender, though hardly exclusive relationship with his girlfriend. The new Shaft is neither a heroic knight errant...
...Mary Jo was shot in the head by Joey's 17-year-old lover, Amy Fisher. Not one to overreact, Mary Jo stood by her man, and things seemed peachy after that little bump in the road. Following Joey's 1995 imprisonment for soliciting sex from an undercover cop (at least no one was shot), the Long Island couple moved to California to start a new life. Sadly, the life wasn't all that new. Joey's dreams of movie stardom went unfulfilled, and the couple drifted apart. And now it has come to this. "I think after all this...
...Even by the standards of blaxploitation flicks it wasn't a great movie, but back in 1971 it seemed just right for the tumultuous times. The original Shaft wasn't merely "the private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks" or "the man who won't cop out when there's danger all about." Like Evers, he was a tough guy caught up in the movement for black freedom, a cocky straight shooter with equal disdain for bad cops and for dope-pushing mobsters--in short, the kind of hero who would have pursued the new Samuel...
...climate of the new century, the makers of this disgraceful film have pulled the character inside out and transformed him into a thug. If this Shaft were a real-life member of New York City's Finest, he wouldn't be tracking bad guys. He'd be the overaggressive cop who stops, frisks--and beats up--people just because they look suspicious. This new film invites young black moviegoers to applaud the kind of police abuse they protest against in the streets...
...Tony: At least they could have had the Roots or someone like that remix the original theme. You know, take the wah-wah guitar and keyboard and build something contemporary over it. To simply run the original was a cop-out. It's a great song but these days it's also Bart Simpson's favorite karaoke tune and the stuff of cheesy Oscar-night entertainment...